Tradition tells us that the Apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew first brought Christianity to the land of the Armenians in the first century. However, it would not be for about 200 more years that Armenia would become the first country to adopt [[Christianity]] as a state religion, in AD 301, when St. [[Gregory the Illuminator]], a missionary from Caesarea, converted the king of Armenia, Trdat IV, to Christianity. In time, St. Gregory was sent back to Caesarea to be elevated to the [[bishops|episcopate]] and returned to Armenia as the first '''Catholicos''' (or "universal" bishop of an area). Gregory's son, Aristakes, attended the First [[Ecumenical Council]] at [[First Ecumenical Council|Nicea]] in AD 325.

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Tradition tells us that the Apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew first brought Christianity to the land of the Armenians in the first century. However, it would not be for about 200 more years that Armenia would become the first country to adopt [[Christianity]] as a state religion, in AD 301, when St. [[Gregory the Enlightener|Gregory the Illuminator]], a missionary from [[Caesarea]], converted the king of Armenia, Trdat IV, to Christianity. In time, St. Gregory was sent back to Caesarea to be elevated to the [[bishops|episcopate]] and returned to Armenia as the first '''[[Catholicos]]''' (or "universal" bishop of an area). Gregory's son, Aristakes, attended the First [[Ecumenical Council]] at [[First Ecumenical Council|Nicea]] in AD 325.

In addition to the obvious spiritual benefits which resulted from the "baptism" of Armenia, this conversion aided in unifying various ethnic groups into a cohesive Armenian identity. The Armenian Church was instrumental in the early missions to neighboring [[Church of Georgia|Georgia]] and [[Caucasian Albania]].

In addition to the obvious spiritual benefits which resulted from the "baptism" of Armenia, this conversion aided in unifying various ethnic groups into a cohesive Armenian identity. The Armenian Church was instrumental in the early missions to neighboring [[Church of Georgia|Georgia]] and [[Caucasian Albania]].

===The Council of Chalcedon===

===The Council of Chalcedon===

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Historically, the [[Armenia]]n church has been labeled [[monophysitism|monophysite]] because it (just as the [[Coptic Christianity|Coptic Orthodox Church]]) rejected the decisions of the [[Council of Chalcedon]], which condemned monophysitism. The Armenian Church officially severed ties with the West in [[554]], during the second Council of [[Dvin]] where the [[Chalcedonian|dyophysite]] formula of the Council of Chalcedon was rejected.

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Historically, the Armenian church has been labeled [[monophysitism|monophysite]] because it (just as the [[Church of Alexandria (Coptic)|Coptic Orthodox Church]]) rejected the decisions of the [[Council of Chalcedon]], which condemned monophysitism. The Armenian Church officially severed ties with the West in 554, during the second Council of [[Dvin]] where the [[Chalcedonian|dyophysite]] formula of the Council of [[Chalcedon]] was rejected.

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However, the Armenian Orthodox Church argues that this is a wrong description of its position, as it considers Monophysitism, as taught by [[Eutyches]] and condemned at Chalcedon, a heresy and only disagrees with the formula defined by that council. The Armenian church instead adheres to the doctrine defined by [[Cyril of Alexandria]], considered as a saint by the Chalcedonian churches as well, who described Christ as being of one incarnate nature, where both divine and human nature are united. To distinguish this from Eutychian and other versions of Monophysitism this position is called [[miaphysitism]].

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However, the Armenian Orthodox Church argues that this is a wrong description of its position, as it considers Monophysitism, as taught by [[Eutyches]] and condemned at Chalcedon, a heresy and only disagrees with the formula defined by that council. The Armenian church instead adheres to the doctrine defined by [[Cyril of Alexandria]], considered as a saint by the Chalcedonian churches as well, who described Christ as being of one incarnate nature, where both divine and human nature are united. To distinguish this from [[Eutychianism|Eutychian]] and other versions of Monophysitism this position is called [[miaphysitism]].

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In recent times, both Chalcedonian and anti-Chalcedonian churches have developed a deeper understanding for each other's positions, recognizing the substantial agreement while maintaining their respective theological language. Hence, the Monophysite label is avoided when describing the Armenians' or Copts' belief regarding the Nature of Christ. It should be noted that the Armenian Church was not represented by its Supreme Patriarch - the Catholicos during the Council of Chalcedon, because the country was in war at the time, so instead a delegation of clergymen was sent.

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In recent times, both Chalcedonian and anti-Chalcedonian churches have developed a deeper understanding for each other's positions, recognizing the substantial agreement while maintaining their respective theological language. Hence, the Monophysite label is avoided when describing the Armenians' or Copts' belief regarding the Nature of Christ. It should be noted that the Armenian Church was not represented by its Supreme Patriarch&mdash;the Catholicos during the Council of Chalcedon, because the country was in war at the time, so instead a delegation of clergymen was sent.

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===The Armenian Genocide===

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== The status of the Ottoman Armenians ==

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{{see also|Ottoman Armenian population}}

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Under the [[Millet (Ottoman Empire)|''millet'']] system of Ottoman law, Armenians (as ''[[dhimmi]]s'', along with [[Greek people|Greek]]s, [[Jew]]s and other ethnic and religious minorities) were subject to laws different from those applied to Muslims.<ref>Dadrian, Vahakn N. ''The History of the Armenian Genocide: Ethnic Conflict from the Balkans to Anatolia to the Caucasus''. Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1995 p. 192 ISBN 1-5718-1666-6</ref> They had separate legal courts, although disputes involving a Muslim fell under [[sharia]]-based law. Armenians were exempt from serving in the military and were instead made to pay an exemption tax, the ''[[jizya]]''; their testimony in Islamic courts was inadmissible against Muslims; they were not allowed to bear arms, and they had to pay a higher tax,<ref>Melson, Robert. ''Revolution and Genocide: On the Origins of the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust.'' Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. pp. 54–6 ISBN 0-2265-1991-0</ref> despite being one of the largest minorities in the Ottoman Empire.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.armeniaforeignministry.com/speeches/050421_vo_confrance.html|title=Ultimate Crime, Ultimate Challenge An International Conference on the 90th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide CLOSING ADDRESS|author=Vartan Oskanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Republic of Armenia|publisher=Armenian Foreign Ministry}}</ref>

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[[Image:Ethnicturkey1911.jpg|thumb|left|220px|Ethnic groups in the Balkans and Asia Minor as of early 20th century ([[William R. Shepherd]], ''Historical Atlas'', 1911).]]

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In 1914, there were an estimated two million Armenians in the [[Ottoman Empire]].<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-7162%28199611%29548%3C156%3APOGTHT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-B|author=Robert Melson|title=Paradigms of Genocide: The Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide, and Contemporary Mass Destructions|journal=Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science|volume=548|date=November 1996|pages=156–68 ('''160''')}}</ref> While the [[Western Armenia|Armenian population in Eastern Anatolia]] was large and clustered, there were many Armenians in the western part of the Ottoman Empire,<ref>{{cite book | last = Hovannisian | first = Richard | title = Armenian people from ancient to modern times, Volume II | publisher = Palgrave Macmillan | pages = 204| id = ISBN 0312101686 }}</ref> particularly in and around [[Constantinople]]. It was nearly two decades earlier, though, that the first massacres against Armenians in Anatolia had started; ''[[The New York Times]]'' quoted a Turkish embassy gazette in 1896 that stated: "It wasn't the [[Sublime Porte|Porte]] that caused the massacres in Armenia, but the Christian propaganda in Asia Minor where their cry, "Down with Islam," initiated the war of the crescent against the cross." <ref>{{cite journal|url=http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C02E2DD1738E233A25750C1A96F9C94679ED7CF|author=The New York Times|title=Indignation in Germany: A Strong Anti-Turkey agitation begun in the empire.|journal=|volume=548|date=September 13, 1896 | accessdate = 2007-10-13}}</ref>

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== Before the war ==

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===Abdul Hamid II's reign, 1876-1909===

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: ''For more details on this topic, see [[Hamidian massacres]], [[Adana massacre]].''

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Sultan [[Abdul Hamid II]] suspended the constitution early in his reign, assuming dictatorial powers. As the Ottoman Empire declined, Armenian political resistance stiffened, resulting in several massacres of Armenians throughout Abdul Hamid's reign.<ref>{{cite news

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| title =Message of The President; Belief Expressed that Christendom Will Not Much Longer Tolerate Atrocities in Armenia.

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In 1908, the Ottoman Empire came under the control of the [[Young Turks]], a secular movement aiming to restore constitutional and parliamentary rule.<ref name=zurch>{{cite web

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| accessdate =2007-07-01 }}</ref> The movement was welcomed by religious minorities throughout the Empire. In 1909, as the authority of the nascent [[Young Turk]] government splintered, Abdul Hamid II briefly regained his [[sultanate]] with a populist appeal to [[Islamism]]. 30,000 Armenians perished in the subsequent [[Adana Massacre]].<ref name="AdanaNYT" /> When two U.S.-born missionaries were killed in the 1909 massacres, Ottoman authorities attributed the killings to "Armenians" who killed them as they "were helping to put out a fire in the house of a Turkish widow."<ref>{{cite news

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: ''For more details on this topic, see [[Young Turk Revolution]], [[Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire]]''

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The Young Turk leadership recovered from the Sultan's [[countercoup (1909)|1909 countercoup]]. By this time, however, the Young Turk revolutionaries were already hardened in their distrust and resentment of Ottoman Christians. According to Erik Jan Zürcher of the [[University of Leiden]],

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{{quote |Living in the urban centers of the southern [[Balkans]] made this generation acutely aware of the increasing gap between the Christian [[bourgeoisie]] on the one hand and the Muslim middle class on the other. This gap was evident in education, with superior schools being established both by the non-Muslim communities themselves and by European missionary organizations… The gap was also increasingly evident in the economy… The sons of the Muslim middle class… increasingly found their place in the state bureaucracy (which grew thirtyfold in the Nineteenth Century) and the officer corps of the armed forces. As such, they were in a paradoxical situation: they represented the authority and prestige of the state, but at the same time they lived in relative poverty, wages often being in arrears for months if not years…}}

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{{quote |[[Young Turk]] memoirs show us very clearly how aware they were of the growing gap between Muslims and non-Muslims. Born in the traditional Muslim quarters they gazed in awe at the villas the Greek and Armenian industrialists built along newly laid-out avenues with tramways and streetlights. The contrast defined their loyalties… The Young Turks developed a fierce Ottoman-Muslim nationalism, which defined the “other” very much in religious terms… [T]he Muslim – Non-Muslim divide would completely dominate politics and lead to the tragedies of the expulsion of Muslims from the Balkans and Greek-Orthodox from [[Anatolia]], as well as to the wholesale slaughter of the Ottoman Armenians.<ref name=zurch />}}

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== Implementation of the Genocide ==

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[[Image:Ruinsgenocide.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Ethnic Armenian town in ruins.]]

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===Planning===

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In November 1914, the Ottoman Empire entered [[World War I]] on the side of the [[Central Powers]]. [[İsmail Enver]], Minister of War, launched an unsuccessful military campaign against Russian forces in the [[Caucasus]] in hopes of capturing the city of [[Baku]]. His forces were routed at the [[Battle of Sarikamis]], and many more of his men froze to death in the retreat.

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Returning to Istanbul, Enver largely blamed the Armenians living in the region for actively siding with the Russians.<ref>Balakian. ''The Burning Tigris'', p. 200</ref> By 1914, Ottoman authorities had already begun a propaganda drive to present Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire as a threat to the country's security. An Ottoman naval officer in the War Office described the planning:

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{{quote|In order to justify this enormous crime the requisite propaganda material was thoroughly prepared in Istanbul. [It included such statements as] "the Armenians are in league with the enemy. They will launch an uprising in Istanbul, kill off the [[Committee of Union and Progress|Ittihadist]] leaders and will succeed in opening the straits [of the [[Dardanelles]]]."<ref>Dadrian., ''History of the Armenian Genocide'', p. 220</ref>}}

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On the night of [[24 April]] 1915, the Ottoman government rounded up and imprisoned an estimated [[Armenian notables deported from the Ottoman capital in 1915|250 Armenian intellectuals]].<ref>Balakian. ''The Burning Tigris'', pp. 211–2</ref>

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[[Image:April24Victims.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Armenian intellectuals were arrested and later executed ''en masse'' by Ottoman authorities on the night of [[April 24]] [[1915]].]]

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==== Legislation, May 29 ====

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{{Further|[[Tehcir Law]]}}

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In May 1915, [[Mehmed Talat Pasha]] requested that the [[cabinet]] and [[grand vizier]] legalize the deportations of the Armenians of Anatolia. On [[29 May]] [[1915]], the CUP Central Committee passed the Temporary Law of Deportation ([[Tehcir Law]]), giving the Ottoman government and military authorization to deport anyone it "sensed" as a threat to national security.<ref>Balakian. ''The Burning Tigris'', pp. 186–8</ref> Several months later, the Temporary Law of Expropriation and Confiscation was passed, stating that all property, including land, livestock, and homes belonging to Armenians, was to be confiscated by the authorities. Ottoman parliamentary representative [[Ahmed Riza]] protested the legislation:

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{{quote|It is unlawful to designate the Armenian assets as “abandoned goods” for the Armenians, the proprietors, did not abandon their properties voluntarily; they were forcibly, compulsorily removed from their domiciles and exiled. Now the government through its efforts is selling their goods… If we are a constitutional regime functioning in accordance with constitutional law we can’t do this. This is atrocious. Grab my arm, eject me from my village, then sell my goods and properties, such a thing can never be permissible. Neither the conscience of the Ottomans nor the law can allow it.<ref>Y. Bayur. ''Turk Inkilabz''. vol. III, part 3 op. cit. in Dadrian. ''History of the Armenian Genocide''</ref> }}

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The confiscation of Armenian property and the slaughter of Armenians that ensued upon the law's enactment outraged much of the western world. While the Ottoman Empire's wartime allies offered little protest, a wealth of German and Austrian historical documents has since come to attest to the witnesses' horror at the killings and mass starvation of Armenians.<ref>Fisk. ''Great War for Civilisation'', pp. 329–31</ref><ref>Fromkin. ''A Peace to End All Peace'', pp. 212–3</ref><ref>http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/chapters/ch2_voices2.html</ref> In the United States, ''The New York Times'' reported almost daily on the mass murder of the Armenian people, describing the process as "systematic", "authorized" and "organized by the government." [[Theodore Roosevelt]] would later characterize this as "the greatest crime of the war."<ref>The hidden holocaust - by Ruth Rosen</ref> <!-- On what page of this book is Roosevelt quoted? -->

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==== Labor battalions ====

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With the passage of Tehcir Law, Enver ordered that all Armenians in the Ottoman forces be disarmed, demobilized and assigned to labor battalions (Turkish: ''amele taburlari''). Many of the Armenian recruits were executed by Ottoman squads known as ''chetes''.<ref>Balakian. ''The Burning Tigris'', p. 178</ref> Some of the Armenian recruits were utilized as laborers (''hamals''), though they too would ultimately be executed.<ref>Toynbee, Arnold. ''Armenian Atrocities: The Murder of a Nation''. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1915. pp. 181–2</ref>

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=== The Special Organization (Teşkilat-ı Mahsusa) ===

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{{Main|Teskilati Mahsusa|Special Organization (Ottoman Empire)}}

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While there was an official 'special organization' founded in December 1911 by the Ottoman government, a second organization that participated in what led to the destruction of the Ottoman Armenian community was founded by the [[lttihad ve Terraki]].<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.umd.umich.edu/dept/Armenian/facts/genocide.html|title = FACT SHEET: ARMENIAN GENOCIDE|publisher = Knights of Vartan Armenian Research Center, The University of Michigan-Dearborn}}</ref> This organization adopted its name in 1913 and functioned like a special forces outfit.<ref>{{cite journal|journal = Middle East Quarterly|author = Guenter Lewy|title = Revisiting the Armenian Genocide|date = Fall 2005|url = http://www.meforum.org/article/748}}</ref>

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Later in 1914, the Ottoman government influenced the direction the special organization was to take by releasing criminals from central prisons to be the central elements of this newly formed special organization.<ref>{{cite journal|journal = International Journal of Middle East Studies|author = Vahakn N. Dadrian|title = The Documentation of the World War I Armenian Massacres in the Proceedings of the Turkish Military Tribunal|volume = 23|date = November 1991|url = http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0020-7438%28199111%2923%3A4%3C549%3ATDOTWW%3E2.0.CO%3B2-2|pages = 549–76 (''560'')}}</ref> According to the Mazhar commissions attached to the tribunal as soon as November 1914, 124 criminals were released from Pimian prison. Many other releases followed; in Ankara a few months later, 49 criminals were released from its central prison.{{Fact|date=February 2007}} Little by little from the end of 1914 to the beginning of 1915, hundreds, then thousands of prisoners were freed to form the members of this organization. Later, they were charged to escort the convoys of Armenian deportees.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NA.BK5.PDF|title = Genocide never again (book 5)|author = R. J. Rummel|publisher = Llumina Press|ISBN 1-59526-075-7}}</ref> Vehib, commander of the Ottoman Third Army, called those members of the special organization, the “butchers of the human species.” <ref>{{cite journal|journal = Middle East Quarterly|author = Guenter Lewy|title = Revisiting the Armenian Genocide|date = Fall 2005|url = http://www.meforum.org/article/748}}</ref>

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=== Process and camps of deportation ===

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{{Seealso|Armenian casualties of deportations}}

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[[Image:Morgen53.jpg|thumb|250px|The remaining bones of the Armenians of [[Erzinjan]].]]The Armenians were marched out to the Syrian town of [[Deir ez-Zor]] and the surrounding desert. A good deal of evidence suggests that the Ottoman government did not provide any facilities or supplies to sustain the Armenians during their deportation, nor when they arrived.<ref name="StarveNYT">{{cite news

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| title =EXILED ARMENIANS STARVE IN THE DESERT; Turks Drive Them Like Slaves, American Committee Hears ;- Treatment Raises Death Rate.

| accessdate =2007-09-16 }}</ref> By August 1915, ''The New York Times'' reported that "the roads and the [[Euphrates]] are strewn with corpses of exiles, and those who survive are doomed to certain death. It is a plan to exterminate the whole Armenian people."<ref name="PerishNYT">{{cite news

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Ottoman troops escorting the Armenians not only allowed others to rob, kill, and rape the Armenians, but often participated in these activities themselves.<ref name="StarveNYT" /> Deprived of their belongings and marched into the desert, hundreds of thousands of Armenians perished.

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{{cquote|Naturally, the death rate from starvation and sickness is very high and is increased by the brutal treatment of the authorities, whose bearing toward the exiles as they are being driven back and forth over the desert is not unlike that of slave drivers. With few exceptions no shelter of any kind is provided and the people coming from a cold climate are left under the scorching desert sun without food and water. Temporary relief can only be obtained by the few able to pay officials.<ref name="StarveNYT" />}}

It is believed that 25 major concentration camps existed, under the command of [[Şükrü Kaya]], one of the right hands of [[Talat Pasha]].<ref name="Kotek">{{fr icon}} Kotek, Joël and Pierre Rigoulot. ''Le Siècle des camps: Détention, concentration, extermination: cent ans de mal radica''. JC Lattes, 2000 ISBN 2-7096-1884-2</ref> The majority of the camps were situated near modern Iraqi and Syrian frontiers, and some were only temporary transit camps.<ref name="Kotek"> </ref> Others, such as Radjo, Katma, and Azaz, are said to have been used only temporarily, for mass graves; these sites were vacated by Fall 1915.<ref name="Kotek"> </ref> Some authors also maintain that the camps Lale, Tefridje, Dipsi, Del-El, and Ra's al-'Ain were built specifically for those who had a life expectancy of a few days.<ref name="Kotek"> </ref>

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Though nearly all the camps, including the primary sites, were open air, the remainder of the mass killing in minor camps was not limited to direct killings, but also to mass burning,<ref>Eitan Belkind was a [[Nili]] member, who infiltrated the Ottoman army as an official. He was assigned to the headquarters of Camal Pasha. He claims to have witnessed the burning of 5,000 Armenians, quoted in Yair Auron, ''The Banality of Indifference: Zionism and the Armenian Genocide''. New Brunswick, N.J., 2000, pp. 181, 183. Lt. Hasan Maruf, of the Ottoman army, describes how a population of a village were taken all together, and then burned. See, British Foreign Office 371/2781/264888, Appendices B., p. 6). Also, the Commander of the Third Army, Vehib's 12 pages affidavit, which was dated December 5, 1918, presented in the Trabzon trial series (March 29, 1919) included in the Key Indictment(published in ''Takvimi Vekayi'', No. 3540, May 5, 1919), report such a mass burning of the population of an entire village near Mus. S. S. McClure write in his work, ''Obstacles to Peace,'' Houghton Mifflin Company, 1917. pp. 400–1, that in Bitlis, Mus and [[Sasun|Sassoun]], ''The shortest method for disposing of the women and children concentrated in tile various camps was to burn them.'' And also that, ''Turkish prisoners who had apparently witnessed some of these scenes were horrified and maddened at the remembering the sight. They told the Russians that the stench of the burning human flesh permeated the air for many days after.'' The Germans, Ottoman allies, also witnessed the way Armenians were burned according to the Israeli historian, Bat Ye’or, who writes: ''The Germans, allies of the Turks in the First World War, …saw how civil populations were shut up in churches and burned, or gathered en masse in camps, tortured to death, and reduced to ashes,…'' (See: B. Ye'or, ''The Dhimmi. The Jews and Christians under Islam,'' Trans. from the French by D. Maisel P. Fenton and D. Liftman, Cranbury, N.J.: Frairleigh Dickinson University, 1985. p. 95)</ref> poisoning<ref>During the Trabzon trial series, of the Martial court (from the sittings between March 26 and Mat 17, 1919), the Trabzons Health Services Inspector Dr. Ziya Fuad wrote in a report that Dr. Saib, caused the death of children with the injection of morphine, the information was allegedly provided by two physicians (Drs. Ragib and Vehib), both Dr. Saib colleagues at Trabzons Red Crescent hospital, where those atrocities were said to have been committed. (See: Vahakn N. Dadrian, ''The Turkish Military Tribunal’s Prosecution of the Authors of the Armenian Genocide: Four Major Court-Martial Series,'' Genocide Study Project, H. F. Guggenheim Foundation, published in ''[[The Holocaust and Genocide Studies]],'' Volume 11, Number 1, Spring 1997). Dr. Ziya Fuad, and Dr. Adnan, public health services director of Trabzon, submitted affidavits, reporting a cases, in which, two school buildings were used to organize children and then sent them on the mezzanine, to kill them with a toxic gas equipment. This case was presented during the Session 3, p.m., 1 April 1919, also published in the Constantinople newspaper Renaissance, 27 April 1919 (for more information, see: Vahakn N. Dadrian, ''The Role of Turkish Physicians in the World War I Genocide of Ottoman Armenians,'' in ''[[The Holocaust and Genocide Studies]]'' 1, no. 2 (1986): 169–192). The Ottoman surgeon, Dr. Haydar Cemal wrote in ''Türkce Istanbul,'' No. 45, 23 December 1918, also published in ''Renaissance,'' 26 December 1918, that ''on the order of the Chief Sanitation Office of the IIIrd Army in January 1916, when the spread of typhus was an acute problem, innocent Armenians slated for deportation at Erzican were inoculated with the blood of typhoid fever patients without rendering that blood ‘inactive’.'' Jeremy Hugh Baron writes : ''Individual doctors were directly involved in the massacres, having poisoned infants, killed children and issued false certificates of death from natural causes. Nazim's brother-in-law Dr. Tevfik Rushdu, Inspector-General of Health Services, organized the disposal of Armenian corpses with thousands of kilos of lime over six months; he became foreign secretary from 1925 to 1938.'' (See: Jeremy Hugh Baron, ''Genocidal Doctors,'' publish in ''Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine,'' November, 1999, 92, pp. 590–3). The psychiatrist, Robert Jay Lifton, writes in a parenthesis when introducing the crimes of NAZI doctors in his book ''Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide,'' Basic Books, (1986) p. xii: ''(Perhaps Turkish doctors, in their participation in the genocide against the Armenians, come closest, as I shall later suggest).'' and drowning.</ref> and drowning.<ref>Oscar S. Heizer, the American consul at Trabzon, reports: ''This plan did not suit Nail Bey…. Many of the children were loaded into boats and taken out to sea and thrown overboard.'' (See: U.S. National Archives. R.G. 59. 867. 4016/411. April 11, 1919 report.) The Italian consul of Trabzon in 1915, Giacomo Gorrini, writes: ''I saw thousands of innocent women and children placed on boats which were capsized in the Black Sea.'' (See: ''Toronto Globe'', August 26, 1915) Hoffman Philip, the American Charge at Constantinople chargé d'affairs, writes: ''Boat loads sent from Zor down the river arrived at Ana, one thirty miles away, with three fifths of passengers missing.'' (Cipher telegram, July 12, 1916. U.S. National Archives, R.G. 59.867.48/356.) The Trabzon trials reported Armenians having been drown in the Black Sea. (''Takvimi Vekdyi'', No. 3616, August 6, 1919, p. 2.)</ref>

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== Foreign corroboration and reaction ==

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Hundreds of eyewitnesses, including the neutral United States and the Ottoman Empire's own allies, Germany and Austria-Hungary, recorded and documented numerous acts of state-sponsored massacres. Many foreign officials offered to intervene on behalf of the Armenians, including [[Pope Benedict XV]], only to be turned away by Ottoman government officials who claimed they were "retaliating against a pro-Russian fifth column."<ref>Ferguson. ''War of the World'' p. 177</ref> On [[May 24]], [[1915]], the [[Triple Entente]] warned the [[Ottoman Empire]] that "In view of these new crimes of Turkey against humanity and civilization, the [[Allies of World War I|Allied Governments]] announce publicly to the [[Sublime Porte]] that they will hold personally responsible for these crimes all members of the Ottoman Government, as well as those of their agents who are implicated in such massacres."<ref>1915 declaration

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* [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/T?&report=hr933&dbname=106& Affirmation of the United States Record on the Armenian Genocide Resolution] 106th Congress,,2nd Session, House of Representatives

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* [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.RES.316: Affirmation of the United States Record on the Armenian Genocide Resolution (Introduced in House of Representatives)] 109th Congress, 1st Session, [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:HE00316: H.RES.316], [[June 14]], [[2005]]. [[15 September]] [[2005]] House Committee/Subcommittee:International Relations actions. Status: Ordered to be Reported by the Yeas and Nays: 40 - 7.

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* "Crimes Against Humanity", 23 British Yearbook of International Law (1946) p. 181

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* William A. Schabas, ''Genocide in International Law: The Crimes of Crimes'', Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp. 16–7

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* [http://www.Armenian-genocide.org/Affirmation.160/current_category.7/affirmation_detail.html Original source of the telegram sent by the Department of State, Washington containing the French, British and Russian joint declaration]</ref>

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The [[American Committee for Relief in the Near East]] (ACRNE, or "Near East Relief") was a charitable organization established to relieve the suffering of the peoples of the Near East.<ref>SIXTY-SIXTH CONGRESS. SESS. I. CH. 32. 1919 August 6, 1919. [S. 180.] [Public No. 25] District of Columbia, Near East Relief incorporated.</ref> The organization was championed by [[Henry Morgenthau, Sr.]], American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. Morgenthau's eyewitness accounts of the mass slaughter of Armenians galvanized much support for ACRNE.<ref>New York Times Dispatch. [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10C13F83C5512738FDDAD0994D1405B858DF1D3 WOULD SEND HERE 550,000 ARMENIANS; Morgenthau Urges Scheme to Save Them From Turks]. The New York Times, September 13, 1915.</ref>

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=== The U.S. mission in the Ottoman Empire ===

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The [[United States]] had several consulates throughout the Ottoman Empire, including locations in [[Edirne]], [[Elazığ]], [[Samsun]], [[İzmir]], [[Trabzon]], [[Van, Turkey|Van]], Constantinople, and another in the Syrian town of [[Aleppo]]. The United States was officially a neutral party until it joined the Allies in 1917. As the orders for deportations and massacres were enacted, many consular officials reported back to the ambassador on what they were witnessing. One such report came in September 1915 from the American consul in Kharput, [[Leslie Davis]], who described his discovery of the bodies of nearly 10,000 Armenians dumped into several ravines near Lake Göeljuk, later referring to it as the "slaughterhouse province".<ref>Balakian. ''Burning Tigris'', pp. 244–5, 314</ref>

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{{ImageStackRight|230|[[Image:AmbassadorMorgenthautelegram.jpg|thumb|210px|A telegram sent by Ambassador [[Henry Morgenthau Sr.]] to the [[State Department]] on [[16 July]] [[1915]] describes the massacres as a "campaign of race extermination."]][[Image:They Shall Not Perish.png|210px|thumb|The [[United States]] contributed a significant amount of aid to the Armenians during the Armenian Genocide. Shown here is a poster for the ''American Committee for Relief in the Near East'' vowing that "they [the Armenians] "shall not perish."]][[Image:NY Times Armenian genocide.jpg|210px|thumb|An article by the [[New York Times]] dated [[15 December]] [[1915]] states that one million Armenians had been either deported or executed by the Ottoman government.]][[Image:World War I- Near East Relief Workers - memory.loc.gov.png|210px|thumb|Workers of the American Committee for Relief in the Near East in [[Sivas]].]]

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Similar reports began to reach Morgenthau from Aleppo and Van, prompting him to raise the issue with Talaat and Enver in person. As he quoted to them the testimonies of the consulate officials, both justified the deportations as necessary to the conduct of the war, suggesting that the complicity of the Armenians of Van with the Russian forces that had overtaken the city justified the persecution of all ethnic Armenians. In his memoirs, Morgenthau later suggested that, "When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for these deportations, they were merely giving the death warrant to a whole race; they understood this well, and, in their conversations with me, they made no particular attempt to conceal the fact…"<ref>In his memoirs, Morgenthau noted'' "When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for these deportations, they were merely giving the death warrant to a whole race; they understood this well, and, in their conversations with me, they made no particular attempt to conceal the fact…. I am confident that the whole history of the human race contains no such horrible episode as this. The great massacres and persecutions of the past seem almost insignificant when compared to the sufferings of the Armenian race in 1915."''</ref>

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In addition to the consulates, there were also several [[Protestant]] missionary compounds established in Armenian-populated regions, including Van and Kharput. Many missionaries vividly described the brutal methods used by Ottoman forces and documented numerous instances of atrocities committed against the Christian minority.<ref>See, for example, James L. Barton, ''Turkish Atrocities: Statements of American Missionaries on the Destruction of Christian Communities in Ottoman Turkey, 1915-1917''. Gomidas Institute, 1998 ISBN 1-8846-3004-9</ref>

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The events were reported daily in newspapers and literary journals around the world.<ref>Balakian. ''The Burning Tigris'', pp. 282–5</ref> Many Americans spoke out against the Genocide, including former president [[Theodore Roosevelt]], rabbi [[Stephen Wise]], [[William Jennings Bryan]], and [[Alice Stone Blackwell]]. The ''American Near East Relief Committee'' helped donate over $110 million to the Armenians.<ref>''[http://www.twocatstv.com/armeniangenocide.php The Armenian Genocide]''. Prod. by Goldberg, Andrew. Two Cats Productions. DVD, 2006</ref> In the United States and Great Britain, children were regularly reminded to clean their plates while eating and to "remember the starving Armenians".<ref>Macmillan, Margaret and Richard Holbrooke. ''Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World''. New York: Random House, 2001 p. 378 ISBN 0-3757-6052-0</ref>

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=== Allied forces in the Middle East ===

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On the [[Middle East]]ern front, the British military engaged Ottoman forces in southern Syria and [[Mesopotamia]]. British diplomat [[Gertrude Bell]] filed the following report after hearing the account of a captured Ottoman soldier:

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{{quote|The battalion left Aleppo on 3 February and reached Ras al-Ain in twelve hours… some 12,000 Armenians were concentrated under the guardianship of some hundred [[Kurds]]… These Kurds were called gendarmes, but in reality mere butchers; bands of them were publicly ordered to take parties of Armenians, of both sexes, to various destinations, but had secret instructions to destroy the males, children and old women… One of these gendarmes confessed to killing 100 Armenian men himself… the empty desert cisterns and caves were also filled with corpses…<ref>Fisk, Robert. ''The Great War for Civilisation: the Conquest of the Middle East''. London: Alfred Knopf, 2005. p. 327 ISBN 1-84115-007-X</ref>}}

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Reacting to numerous eyewitness accounts, British politician [[Viscount Bryce]] and historian [[Arnold J. Toynbee]] compiled statements from survivors and eyewitnesses from other countries including Germany, [[Italy]], the [[Netherlands]], [[Sweden]], and [[Switzerland]], who similarly attested to the systematized massacring of innocent Armenians by Ottoman government forces. In 1916, they published ''The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, 1915-1916''. Although the book has since been criticized as British wartime propaganda to build up sentiment against the Central Powers, Bryce had submitted the work to scholars for verification prior to its publication. [[University of Oxford]] Regius Professor [[Gilbert Murray]] stated of the tome, "…the evidence of these letters and reports will bear any scrutiny and overpower any skepticism. Their genuineness is established beyond question."<ref>Dadrian. ''History of the Armenian Genocide'', p. 228</ref> Other professors, including [[Herbert Fisher]]

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of [[Sheffield University]] and former [[American Bar Association]] president [[Moorfield Storey]], affirmed the same conclusion.<ref>Dadrian. ''History of the Armenian Genocide'', pp. 228–9</ref>

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[[Winston Churchill]] described the massacres as an "administrative holocaust" and noted that "the clearance of race from Asia Minor was about as complete as such an act could be… There is no reason to doubt that this crime was planned and executed for political reasons. The opportunity presented itself for clearing Turkish soil of a Christian race opposed to all Turkish ambitions."<ref>Churchill, Winston. ''The World Crisis, 1911-1918''. London: Free Press, 2005. p. 157</ref>

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=== The joint Austrian and German mission ===

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As allies during the war, the Imperial German mission in the Ottoman Empire included both military and civilian components. Germany had brokered a deal with the [[Sublime Porte]] to commission the building of a railroad stretching from [[Berlin]] to the Middle East, called the [[Baghdad Railway]].

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Among the most famous persons to document the massacres was German military medic [[Armin T. Wegner]]. Wegner defied state censorship in taking hundreds of [http://www.armenian-genocide.org/photo_wegner.html#photo_collection photographs] of Armenians being deported and subsequently starving in northern Syrian camps.<ref>Fisk. ''Great War for Civilisation'', p. 326</ref>

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German officers stationed in eastern Turkey disputed the government's assertion that Armenian revolts had broken out, suggesting that the areas were "quiet until the deportations began."<ref>[[David Fromkin|Fromkin, David]]. ''[[A Peace to End All Peace|A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East]]''. New York: Owl, 1989 p. 212 ISBN 0-8050-6884-8</ref>

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Germany's diplomatic mission was lead by Ambassador Baron [[Hans Freiherr von Wangenheim]] (and later Count [[Paul Wolff Metternich]]). Like Morgenthau, von Wagenheim received many disturbing messages from consul officials around the Ottoman Empire. From the province of [[Adana]], Consul Eugene Buge reported that the CUP chief had sworn to kill and massacre any Armenians who survived the deportation marches.<ref>Balakian. ''Burning Tigris'', p. 186</ref> In June 1915, von Wagenheim sent a cable to Berlin reporting that Talat had admitted the deportations were not "being carried out because of 'military considerations alone.'" One month later, he came to the conclusion that there "no longer was doubt that the Porte was trying to exterminate the Armenian race in the Turkish Empire."<ref>Fromkin. ''A Peace to End All Peace'', p. 213</ref>

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When Wolff-Metternich succeeded von Wagenheim, he continued to dispatch similar cables: "The Committee [CUP] demands the extirpation of the last remnants of the Armenians and the government must yield…. A Committee representative is assigned to each of the provincial administrations…. [[Turkification]] means license to expel, to kill or destroy everything that is not Turkish."<ref>''Auswärtiges Amt'', West German Foreign Office Archives, K170, no. 4674, folio 63, op. cit. in ''Burning Tigris'', p. 186</ref>

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German engineers and laborers involved in building the railway also witnessed Armenians being crammed into cattle cars and shipped along the railroad line. Franz Gunther, a representative for [[Deutsche Bank]] which was funding the construction of the Baghdad Railway, forwarded photographs to his directors and expressed his frustration at having to remain silent amid such "bestial cruelty".<ref>Ibid, p. 326</ref> Major General [[Otto von Lossow]], acting military attaché and head of the German Military Plenipotentiary in the Ottoman Empire, spoke to Ottoman intentions in a conference held in [[Batum]] in 1918:

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{{quote|The Turks have embarked upon the "total extermination of the Armenians in [[Transcaucasia]]… The aim of Turkish policy is, as I have reiterated, the taking of possession of Armenian districts and the extermination of the Armenians. Talaat's government wants to destroy all Armenians, not just in Turkey but also outside Turkey. On the basis of all the reports and news coming to me here in [[Tiflis]] there hardly can be any doubt that the Turks systematically are aiming at the extermination of the few hundred thousand Armenians whom they left alive until now.<ref>Dadrian. ''History of the Armenian Genocide'', p. 349</ref>}}

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Similarly, Major General [[Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein]] noted that "The Turkish policy of causing starvation is an all too obvious proof… for the Turkish resolve to destroy the Armenians."<ref>Dadrian. History of the Armenian Genocide'', p. 350</ref> Another notable figure in the German military camp was [[Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter]], who documented various massacres of Armenians. He sent fifteen reports regarding "deportations and mass killings" to Germany's chancellor in Berlin. His final report noted that fewer than 100,000 Armenians were left alive in the Ottoman Empire; the rest had been exterminated ({{lang-de|ausgerottet}}).<ref>Fisk. ''Great War for Civilisation'', pp. 329–30</ref> Scheubner-Richter also detailed the methods of the Ottoman government, noting its use of the Special Organization and other bureaucratized instruments of genocide.

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Some Germans openly supported the Ottoman policy against the Armenians, as the German naval attaché in Constantinople said to U.S. Ambassador [[Henry Morgenthau]];

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{{quote|"I have lived in Turkey the larger part of my life," he told me, "and I know the Armenians. I also know that both Armenians and Turks cannot live together in this country. One of these races has got to go. And I don't blame the Turks for what they are doing to the Armenians. I think that they are entirely justified. The weaker nation must succumb. The Armenians desire to dismember Turkey; they are against the Turks and the Germans in this war, and they therefore have no right to exist here."<ref>[http://net.lib.byu.edu/~rdh7/wwi/comment/morgenthau/Morgen27.htm "Ambassador Henry Morgenthau's Story" by Henry Morgenthau], in ''Harold B Library, Brigham Young University'', Retrieved 29 June 2007</ref>}}

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In a genocide conference in 2001, professor Wolfgang Wipperman of the [[Free University of Berlin]] introduced documents evidencing that the German High Command was aware of the mass killings at the time but chose not to interfere or speak out.<ref>Fisk. ''Great War for Civilisation'', p. 331</ref>

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=== Russian military ===

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The Russian Empire's response to the bombardment of its Black Sea naval ports was primarily a land campaign through the Caucasus. Early victories against the Ottoman Empire from the winter of 1914 to the spring 1915 saw significant gains of territory, including relieving the Armenian bastion resisting in the city of Van in May 1915. The Russians also reported encountering the bodies of unarmed civilian Armenians in the areas they advanced through.<ref>[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70A1FFC395C13738DDDAA0A94DA405B858DF1D3 MASSACRE BY TURKS IN CAUCASUS TOWNS; Armenians Led Out Into the Streets and Shot or Drowned -- Old Friends Not Spared.]</ref> In March 1916, the scenes they saw in the city of [[Erzerum]] led the Russians to retaliate against the Ottoman III<sup>rd</sup> Army whom they held responsible for the massacres, destroying it in its entirety.<ref>New York Times Dispatch. [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40E13F93B5B17738DDDAF0894DB405B868DF1D3 Russians Slaughter Turkish III<sup>rd</sup> Army: Give No Quarter to Men Held Responsible for the Massacre of Armenians]. The New York Times, March 6, 1916.</ref>

Domestic courts-martial began on 23 November 1918. These courts were designed by Sultan [[Mehmed VI]] to punish the [[Committee of Union and Progress]] for the Empire's ill-conceived involvement in [[World War I]]. The Armenian issue was used as a tool to punish the leaders of the Committee of Union and Progress. Most of the documents generated in these courts were later moved to international trials. By January 1919, a report to Sultan [[Mehmed VI]] accused over 130 suspects, most of whom were high officials. [[Mehmed Talat Pasha]] and [[Ismail Enver]] had fled prior to 1919, anticipating the Sultan's wrath. The term [[Three Pashas]] generally refers to this prominent triumvirate held accountable for [[Ottoman Empire]] involvement in [[World War I]].

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The courts-martial officially disbanded the Committee of Union and Progress, which had actively ruled the [[Ottoman Empire]] for ten years. All the assets of the organization were transferred to the treasury, and the assets of those found guilty were moved to "teceddüt firkasi". According to verdicts handed down by the court, all members except for the Three Pashas were transferred to jails in Bekiraga, then moved to Malta. The Three Pashas were found guilty in absentia. The courts-martial blamed the members of Ittihat Terakki for pursuing a war that did not fit into the notion of [[Millet (Ottoman Empire)|Millet]].

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==== International trials ====

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{{Main|Malta exiles|Malta Tribunals}}

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These Ottoman politicians, generals, and intellectuals were [[Malta exiles|deported to Malta]], where they were held for some three years, while searches were made of archives in Istanbul, London, Paris and Washington to investigate their actions.<ref>Türkei By Klaus-Detlev. Grothusen</ref>

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Following the [[Armistice of Mudros]] in January 1919, the preliminary [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Peace Conference in Paris]] established "The Commission on Responsibilities and Sanctions" which was chaired by U.S. Secretary of State Lansing. Following the commission's work, several articles were added to the [[Treaty of Sèvres]], and the acting government of the [[Ottoman Empire]], Sultan [[Mehmed VI]] and [[Damat Adil Ferit Pasha]], were summoned to trial. The [[Treaty of Sèvres]] recognized the [[Democratic Republic of Armenia]] and planned a trial to determine those responsible for the "barbarous and illegitimate methods of warfare… [including] offenses against the laws and customs of war and the principles of humanity".<ref name="nazi" />

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Article 230 of the [[Treaty of Sèvres]] required the Ottoman Empire "hand over to the Allied Powers the persons whose surrender may be required by the latter as being responsible for the massacres committed during the continuance of the state of war on territory which formed part of the [[Ottoman Empire]] on August 1, 1914."

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At the trials in Istanbul in 1919 many of those responsible for the genocide were sentenced to death in absentia, after having escaped trial in 1918. The military court established the will of the [[Committee of Union and Progress]] to eliminate the Armenians physically, via its special organization. The 1919 pronouncement reads as follows:

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{{quote|The Court Martial taking into consideration the above-named crimes declares, unanimously, the culpability as principal factors of these crimes the fugitives [[Talat Pasha]], former Grand Vizir, [[Enver Efendi]], former War Minister, struck off the register of the Imperial Army, Cemal Efendi, former Navy Minister, struck off too from the Imperial Army, and Dr. Nazim Efendi, former Minister of Education, members of the General [[Committee of Union and Progress|Council of the Union & Progress]], representing the moral person of that party;… the Court Martial pronounces, in accordance with said stipulations of the Law the death penalty against Talat, Enver, Cemal, and Dr. Nazim.}}

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== Operation Nemesis ==

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{{main|Operation Nemesis}}

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"Operation Nemesis" was the [[Armenian Revolutionary Federation]] codename for the covert operation in the 1920s to assassinate the [[Young Turks|masterminds]] of the Armenian Genocide. It is named after the Greek goddess of divine retribution, ''[[Nemesis (mythology)|Nemesis]]''.

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== Armenian deaths, 1914 to 1918 ==

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{{main|Ottoman Armenian casualties}}

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[[Image:Order to relocate Armenians.jpg|200px|thumb|Targets of movements from [[Ottoman Archives]]]]

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While there is no consensus as to how many Armenians lost their lives during the Armenian Genocide, there is general agreement among western scholars that over 500,000 Armenians perished between 1914 and 1918. Estimates vary between 300,000 (per the modern Turkish state) to 1,500,000 (per modern Armenia,<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6043730.stm French in Armenia 'genocide' row, BBC News, 12 October 2006]</ref> Argentina,<ref>[http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=cd6618e1-508d-4d27-a607-18e10e743d28 ''Turkey protests Harper's marking of genocide'', by Allan Woods, The Ottawa Citizen, May 06, 2006]</ref> and other states). ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' references the research of [[Arnold J. Toynbee]], an intelligence officer of the [[British Foreign Office]], who estimated that 600,000 Armenians "died or were massacred during deportation" in the years 1915-1916 alone.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9117457/Armenian-massacres Encyclopædia Britannica: Death toll of the Armenian Massacres]</ref>

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== Influence of the Armenian Genocide on Adolf Hitler ==

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{{main|Armenian quote}}

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The Armenian Genocide is often speculated to have influenced [[Adolf Hitler]], owing to his various references to the Ottoman killings of Armenians.<ref>{{cite book |first = Colin | last = Sumner | title = The Blackwell Companion to Criminology | publisher = Blackwell Publishing | pages = 74 | year = 2003 | id = ISBN 0631220925}}</ref> The extent of Hitler's knowledge of the Armenian Genocide is unclear, though he did refer to their destruction several times.<ref>Fisk. ''Great War for Civilisation'', p. 330</ref> The most notable quote attributed to Hitler on the Armenians is excerpted from an August 1939 military conference, prior to the [[invasion of Poland]]:

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{{Cquote|I have issued the command &mdash; and I’ll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by a firing squad &mdash; that our war aim does not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formation in readiness &mdash; for the present only in the East &mdash; with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space [''[[Lebensraum]]''] which we need. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?<ref>[[Louis P. Lochner|Lochner, Louis P.]]''What About Germany?'' Dodd, Mead & Company, 1942 pp. 11–2.</ref>}}

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There are numerous accounts of Hitler speaking in regards to the Armenians, with at least two similar versions of the 1939 speech coming from the German High Command archives. In 1931, for example, two years prior to his ascension as Germany's leader, Hitler noted in an interview that "everywhere people are awaiting a new world order. We intend to introduce a great resettlement policy… remember the extermination of the Armenians."<ref>Fisk. ''Great War for Civilisation'', p. 330.</ref> In 1943, during the height of his attempts to exterminate the Jews in Europe, Hitler demanded of [[Hungary|Hungarian]] regent Admiral [[Miklós Horthy]] that he deport the Jews from the country: "Nations which did not get rid of the Jews perished. One of the most famous examples of this was the downfall of a people who were so proud &mdash; the [[Persians]], who now lead a pitiful existence as Armenians."<ref>[[Martin Gilbert|Gilbert, Martin]]. ''The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second World War''. New York: Henry Holt & Company, 1985 p. 556 ISBN 0-8050-0348-7.</ref>

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== Academic views ==

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[[Hebrew University]] scholar [[Yehuda Bauer]] suggests of the Armenian Genocide, "This is the closest parallel to the [[Holocaust]]."<ref>Yehuda Bauer, ''The Place of the Holocaust in Contemporary History'', via ''Holocaust: Religious & Philosophical Implications''</ref> He nonetheless distinguishes several key differences between the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide, particularly in regards to motivation:

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{{quote |[T]he Nazis saw the Jews as ''the'' central problem of world history. Upon its solution depended the future of mankind. Unless International Jewry was defeated, human civilization would not survive. The attitude towards the Jews had in it important elements of pseudo-religion. There was no such motivation present in the Armenian case; Armenians were to be annihilated for power-political reasons, and in Turkey only…}}

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{{quote |The differences between the holocaust and the Armenian massacres are less important than the similarities--and even if the Armenian case is not seen as a holocaust in the extreme form which it took towards Jews, it is certainly the nearest thing to it.<ref>Yehuda Bauer, ''The Place of the Holocaust in Contemporary History'', via ''Holocaust: Religious & Philosophical Implications''</ref>}}

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Bauer has also suggested that the Armenian Genocide is best understood, not as having begun in 1915, but rather as "an ongoing genocide, from 1896, through 1908/9, through World War I and right up to 1923."<ref name="ongoing">Bauer, Yehuda. ''Can Genocides be Prevented?'', [http://www.armeniaforeignministry.com/conference/yahuda_bauer.pdf]</ref> [[Lucy Dawidowicz]] also alludes to these earlier massacres as at least as significant as WWI era events:

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{{quote |In 1897, when the [[Dreyfus Affair]] was tearing France apart, [[Bernard Lazare]], a French Jew active in Dreyfus's defense, addressed a group of Jewish students in Paris on the subject of anti-Semitism. "For the Christian peoples," he remarked, "an Armenian solution" to their Jew-hatred was available. He was referring to the Turkish massacres of Armenians, which in their extent and horror most closely approximated the murder of European Jews. But, Lazare went on, "their sensibilities cannot allow them to envisage that." The once unthinkable "Armenian solution" became, in our time, the achievable "Final Solution," the Nazi code name for the annihilation of the European Jews.<ref>Dawidowicz, Lucy S. ''The Holocaust and the Historians''</ref>}}

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Law professor [[Raphael Lemkin]], who coined the term "genocide" in 1943, has stated that he did so "because it happened so many times… First to the Armenians, then after the Armenians, [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] took action."<ref>{{cite web

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| title =A PBS Documentary Makes Its Case for the Armenian Genocide, With or Without a Debate

| accessdate =2007-06-30 }}</ref> Several international organizations have conducted studies of the events, each in turn determining that the term "genocide" aptly describes "the Ottoman massacre of Armenians in 1915-1916."<ref name="ictj">{{cite web

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Among the organizations affirming this conclusion are the [[International Center for Transitional Justice]], the [[International Association of Genocide Scholars]],<ref>{{cite web

}}</ref> and the United Nations' [[Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities]].<ref name=armeniapediaictj>[http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=International_Center_for_Transitional_Justice Armeniapedia: International Center for Transitional Justice]</ref><ref name="ictj" /> In 2007, [http://www.eliewieselfoundation.org/ The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity] produced [http://www.eliewieselfoundation.org/PressReleases/TurkishArmenianReconciliation.pdf a letter] signed by 53 [[Nobel Laureate]]s re-affirming the Genocide Scholars' conclusion that the 1915 killings of Armenians constituted genocide.<ref>{{cite web

While some consider denial to be a form of [[hate speech]] or politically-minded [[historical revisionism (political)|historical revisionism]],[http://www.facinghistory.org/campus/reslib.nsf/lessonsnew/714E93AC06907D9D85257181006C4508?opendocument] a small minority of western academics in the field of Ottoman history have expressed doubts as to the genocidal character of the events.<ref>Gilles Veinstein, "Trois questions sur un massacre", L’Histoire, no. 187 (April 1995), pp. 40–1.</ref><ref>Jeremy Salt, "The Narrative Gap in Ottoman Armenian History, Middle Eastern Studies, Vol 39, No 1, January 2003 pp 19-36</ref><ref>Erickons, E.J., 2006. Armenian Massacres: New Records Undercut Old Blame. ''The Middle East Quarterly''. Summer 2006, Vol.13, No.3.</ref> While these dissenting opinions are far more common among residents of modern Turkey, some academics have established reputations for having adopted the viewpoint of the Turkish state. [[Justin A. McCarthy]] of the [[University of Louisville]], for instance, has regularly contended that the events do not constitute genocide; in 1998, the government of Turkey awarded him with the Order of Merit for his efforts.<ref>{{cite web

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The most important counterpoint may be that of British scholar [[Bernard Lewis]]. While he had once written of "the terrible holocaust of 1915, when a million and a half Armenians perished",<ref>Bostom, Andrew. [http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm?frm=3223&sec_id=3223%22%3EDhimmitude%20and%20The%20Doyen "Dhimmitude and The Doyen"], [[New English Review]], [[November 10]], [[2006]]. Retrieved [[April 26]], [[2007]].</ref> he later came to believe that the term "genocide" was distinctly inaccurate, because the "tremendous massacres"<ref name="ATA">[http://www.ataa.org/magazine/blewis_statement.pdf Statement of Professor Bernard Lewis, Princeton University], "Distinguishing Armenian Case from Holocaust", Assembly of Turkish American Associations, [[April 14]], 2002 (PDF)</ref> were not "a deliberate preconceived decision of the Turkish government."<ref>Getler, Michael. [http://www.pbs.org/ombudsman/2006/04/documenting_and_debating_a_genocide.html "Documenting and Debating a 'Genocide'"], ''The Ombudsman Column'', [[PBS]], April 21, 2006. Retrieved October 9, 2006.</ref> This opinion has been joined by [[Guenter Lewy]].<ref>Lewy, Guenter. ''The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed Genocide''</ref>

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While academic opinions within the modern Republic of Turkey often seem to be at odds with international consensus, this may stem from the fact that it remains illegal to speak of the Armenian Genocide in Turkey. [[Nobel Prize for Literature|Nobel Prize]]-winning Turkish novelist [[Orhan Pamuk]] faced harassment and criminal prosecution for stating that "a million Armenians were killed in these lands".<ref>{{cite news|author=Nouritza Matossian|coauthors= |title=They say 'incident'. To me it's genocide|url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1426319,00.html|publisher=[[The Observer]]|date=[[2005-02-27]]|accessdate=2007-02-24}}</ref><ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/Europe/4527318.stm BBC News — "Author's trial set to test Turkey" — 14 December 2005]</ref>

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Similarly, [[Hrant Dink]], the ethnic Armenian chief editor of the ''[[Agos]]'' newspaper in Turkey, was prosecuted by the Turkish state three times for "[[Article 301 (Turkish penal code)|denigrating Turkishness]]", for his having criticized the Turkish state's denial of the Armenian Genocide.<ref>{{cite web

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}}</ref> Leaked photographs of the assassin apparently being revered as a national hero while in police custody, posing in front of the [[Turkish flag]] with grinning policemen,<ref>[http://www.radikal.com.tr/haber.php?haberno=211902 Samast'a jandarma karakolunda kahraman muamelesi], [[Radikal]], [[2007-02-02]]</ref> gave the academic community still more pause in regards to engaging the Armenian issue.<ref name="IPI070122">{{cite web|url=http://www.freemedia.at/cms/ipi/statements_detail.html?ctxid=CH0055&docid=CMS1169459655335 |title=IPI Deplores Callous Murder of Journalist in Istanbul|publisher=[[International Press Institute]] | date=2007-01-22|access-date=2007-01-24}}</ref>

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According to the scholarship of [[Bat Ye'or]], "The genocide of the Armenians was a [[jihad]]."<ref>[http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/08/congress_must_recognize_the_ar_1.html]</ref> Ye'or contends that the [[Islam]]ic concepts of ''[[dhimmitude]]'' and ''jihad'' were among the "principles and values" that led to the Armenian Genocide.<ref>Ye'or, Bat. ''Islam and Dhimmitude'', p. 374. </ref>

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==The Republic of Turkey and the Armenian Genocide==

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{{Main|Denial of the Armenian Genocide}}

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The [[Republic of Turkey]]'s formal stance is that the deaths of [[Armenians]] during the "relocation" or "[[deportation]]" cannot aptly be deemed "genocide." This point has been contended with a plethora of diverging justifications: that the killings were not deliberate or were not governmentally orchestrated, that the killings were justified because Armenians posed a Russian-sympathizing threat as a cultural group, that Armenians merely starved, or any of various characterizations recalling marauding "Armenian gangs."<ref>[http://www.turkses.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=521&Itemid=33]</ref><ref>[http://www.ataa.org/reference/question_tashan.html]</ref><ref>[http://www.anarmenianmyth.com/massacred_turks.htm]</ref> Some suggestions seek to invalidate the genocide on semantic or anachronistic grounds (the word "[[genocide]]" was not coined until 1943).

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Turkish [[World War I]] casualty figures are often cited to mitigate the effect of the number of Armenian dead.<ref>[http://www.turkishembassy.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=64&Itemid=257]</ref> The [http://www.tbmm.gov.tr/english/english.htm website] of the [[Grand National Assembly of Turkey]] currently features a section entitled ''[http://www.tbmm.gov.tr/yayinlar/yayin3/atrocity.htm Archive Documents about the Atrocities and Genocide Inflicted upon Turks by Armenians]'', suggesting that the Turks of Anatolia experienced a genocide at the hands of the Armenians.

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The [http://www.tsk.mil.tr/eng/index.htm website] of the Turkish General Staff also offers many of its own publications intended to bolster denial of the Armenian Genocide. One such example defines the Armenians as "an incapable, parasite and greedy nation that can live only at another nation's expense."<ref>http://www.tsk.mil.tr//eng/ermeni_sorunu_salonu/book.htm</ref>

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Turkish governmental sources have asserted that the historically-demonstrated "tolerance of Turkish people"<ref name="TurkishGeneralStaff">[http://www.tsk.mil.tr//eng/uluslararasi/armenianissue.htm]</ref> itself renders the Armenian Genocide an impossibility. One military document leverages 11th century history to disprove the Armenian Genocide: "It was the [[Seljuk Turks]] who saved the Armenians that came under the [[Battle of Manzikert|Turkish domination in 1071]] from the [[Byzantium|Byzantine]] persecution and granted them the right to live as a man should."<ref name="TurkishGeneralStaff" /> A [[Der Spiegel]] article addressed this modern Turkish conception of history thus:

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{{quote |"Would you admit to the crimes of your grandfathers, if these crimes didn't really happen?" asked ambassador Öymen. But the problem lies precisely in this question, says [[Hrant Dink]], publisher and editor-in-chief of the Istanbul-based Armenian weekly ''[[Agos]]''. Turkey's bureaucratic elite have never really shed themselves of the Ottoman tradition &mdash; in the perpetrators, they see their fathers, whose honor they seek to defend.}}

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{{quote |This tradition instils a sense of identity in Turkish nationalists &mdash; both from the left and the right, and it is passed on from generation to generation through the school system. This tradition also requires an antipole against which it could define itself. Since the times of the Ottoman Empire, religious minorities have been pushed into this role.<ref>[http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,353274,00.html]</ref>}}

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Public prosecutors have utilized [[Article 301 (Turkish penal code)|Article 301]] of the Turkish Penal Code prohibiting "insulting Turkishness" to silence some Turkish intellectuals who spoke of atrocities endured by Armenians in the last days of the Ottoman Empire.<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20020214/ai_n12598598 ''Obituary: Ayse Nur Zarakolu''] by Felix Corley, ''[[The Independent|Independent]]'', [[February 14]] [[2002]].</ref> Turkish state officials say that no one is currently incarcerated for expressing their ideas, and that the law may soon be amended.<ref>[http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/03/africa/turkey.php ''President of Turkey defends rights record''] ''[[International Herald Tribune]]'', [[October 03]] [[2007]].</ref> The modern Turkish government continues to protest the formal recognition of the genocide by other countries.

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[[Open University of Israel]] scholar Yair Auron, in his ''The Banality of Denial'', has addressed the various means employed by the Turkish government to obscure the reality of the Armenian Genocide:

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{{quote |Despite the vast amount of evidence that points to the historical reality of the Armenian Genocide, denial of this genocide by successive regimes in Turkey has continued from 1915 to present… Out of political expediency, other governments, including that of the United States and Israel, have aided and abetted Turkey in its rewriting of history.}}

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{{quote |In the 1960s, efforts were made to influence journalists, teachers, and public officials by telling "the other side of the story." Foreign scholars were encouraged to revise the record of the Genocide, presenting an account largely blaming the Armenians or, in another version, wartime conditions… The Turkish government has also attempted to exclude any mention of the Genocide in textbooks and to prevent its inclusion in Holocaust and human rights curricula.}}

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{{quote |The Turkish government has attempted to disrupt academic conferences and public discussions of the genocide, notably a conference in Tel Aviv in 1982, with demands backed up with threats to the safety of Jews in Turkey…}}

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{{quote |Since the 1980s, the Turkish government has supported the establishment of "institutes" affiliated with respected universities, whose apparent purpose is to further research on Turkish history and culture, but which also tend to act in ways that further denial. The volume and extent of these activities have been described by one scholar as "an industry of denial" and by another as "an industry of denialism."<ref>Auron, Yair. ''The Banality of Denial'', p. 47</ref>}}

Responding to Turkish state denials of the Armenian Genocide, many activists among [[Armenian Diaspora]] communities have pushed for formal recognition from various governments around the world. Twenty-two countries, the [[Welsh Assembly]],<ref>National Assembly of Wales: [http://www.assemblywales.org/hom-pdfviewer?url=n0000000000000000000000000003432 Armenian Genocide statement]</ref> and 40 of the [[U.S. state]]s, have adopted formal resolutions acknowledging the Armenian Genocide as a ''bona fide'' historical event.

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In 2006 the French parliament has adopted a bill making it a crime to deny the Armenian genocide <ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6043730.stm French in Armenia 'genocide' row, BBC News, 12 October 2006</ref>.

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Turkish-Armenian intellectual [[Hrant Dink]] (who recognized the Genocide) was often critical of these recognition campaigns as being unhelpful.{{Fact|date=October 2007}}

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In March 2007, [[Condoleezza Rice]] and [[Robert M. Gates]] signed an open letter to [[United States Congress|Congress]], warning that formally recognizing the Armenian Genocide “could harm American troops in the field” by "antagonizing" Turkey.<ref name="NYT Sebnem">{{cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/washington/30turkey.html?ex=1332907200&en=7cb0d6b40c3153c7&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss|title=Planned House Vote on Armenian Massacre Angers Turks|author=Sebnem Arsu|first=Sebnem|last=Arsu|coauthors=Brian Knowlton|work=The New York Times|publisher=The New York Times Company|date=[[2007-03-30]]}}</ref>

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On [[October 10]], [[2007]], prior to a vote by the United States House of Representatives that would condemn the events formally as genocide, Rice was joined by the other eight living U.S. Secretaries of State in calling for the measure to be defeated, in order to protect American regional interests and maintain basing rights in Turkey for American efforts in Iraq. Turkey recalled its ambassador to the [[United States]], in an apparent reaction to the upcoming vote in the [[US House of Representatives| House of Representatives]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/11/us.turkey.armenians/index.html |title=Turkey recalls ambassador over genocide resolution |first=Deirdre |last=Walsh |coauthors=Labott, Elise and Sterling, Joe |publisher=[[CNN]]|date=[[2007-10-12]]}}</ref>

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However the [[United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs]] approved a bill that categorised and condemned the Ottoman Empire for the Genocide, on [[October 10]], [[2007]], by a 27-21 vote.<ref>[http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071010/ap_on_go_co/us_armenia_genocide Bush opposes Armenian genocide measure], Desmond Butler, ''[[Associated Press]]'', [[October 10]], [[2007]]</ref> "While that may have been a long time ago, genocide is taking place now in Darfur, it did within recent memory in Rwanda, so as long as there is genocide there is need to speak out against it," said the [[speaker of the House of Representatives]], [[Nancy Pelosi]] <ref>[http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-10-11-voa71.cfm US House Speaker: Armenian Genocide Measure Will Go Forward // Voice of America News, 11 October 2007]</ref>.

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== Commemoration ==

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=== The memorial at Tsitsernakaberd ===

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{{main|Tsitsernakaberd}}

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In 1965, the 50th anniversary of the genocide, a [[1965 Yerevan Demonstrations|24-hour mass protest]] was initiated in [[Yerevan]] demanding recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Soviet authorities. The memorial was completed two years later, at [[Tsitsernakaberd]] above the [[Hrazdan]] gorge in Yerevan. The 44 meter [[Stela|stele]] symbolizes the national rebirth of Armenians. 12 slabs are positioned in a circle, representing 12 lost provinces in present day [[Turkey]]. At the center of the circle there is an [[eternal flame]].

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Each April 24th, hundreds of thousands of people walk to the genocide monument and lay flowers around the eternal flame.

The earliest example of the Armenian genocide on art was a medal issued in [[St. Petersburg]], signifying Russian sympathy for Armenian suffering. It was struck in 1915, as the massacres and deportations were still raging. Since then, dozens of medals in different countries have been commissioned to commemorate the event.<ref>{{cite book

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| title = Works of the State History History Museum of Armenia, Vol. IV:Armenian Theme in Russian Medallic Art.

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| date = 1975

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Several eyewitness accounts of the events were published, notably those of Swedish missionary [[Alma Johansson]] and U.S. Ambassador [[Henry Morgenthau, Sr.]] German medic Armin Wegner wrote several books about the events he witnessed while stationed in the Ottoman Empire. Years later, having returned to Germany, Wegner was imprisoned for opposing Nazism,<ref>http://hgs.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/8/3/395</ref> and his books were subjected to [[Nazi book burnings]].<ref>[http://www.aktion-patenschaften.de/autoren/w02.htm Aktion Patenschaften für verbrannte Bücher e.V.: Autorenseite Wegners]</ref> Nonetheless, the most famous piece of literature concerning the Armenian Genocide is [[Franz Werfel]]'s ''[[The Forty Days of Musa Dagh]]''. Published in 1933, Werfel's work became a best-seller.

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[[Kurt Vonnegut]]'s 1988 novel ''[[Bluebeard (book)|Bluebeard]]'' features the Armenian Genocide as an underlying theme. Other novels incorporating the Armenian Genocide include [[Louis de Berniéres]]' ''Birds without Wings'', Edgar Hilsenrath's German-language ''The Fairytale of the Last Thought'', and [[Stefan Żeromski]]'s 1925 ''[[The Spring to Come]]''. A story in Edward Saint-Ivan's 2006 anthology "The Black Knight's God" includes a fictional survivor of the Armenian Genocide.

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The first film about the Armenian Genocide appeared in 1919, a Hollywood production entitled ''[[Ravished Armenia]]''. It resonated with acclaimed director [[Atom Egoyan]], influencing his 2002 ''[[Ararat (film)|Ararat]]''. There are also references in [[Elia Kazan]]'s ''America, America'' or [[Henri Verneuil]]'s ''[[Mayrig]]''. At the [[Berlin Film Festival]] of 2007 Italian directors [[Paolo and Vittorio Taviani]] presented another film about the events, based on Antonia Arslan's book, ''La Masseria Delle Allodole'' (''The Farm of the Larks'').<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,466427,00.html|title = Armenian Genocide at the Berlin Film Festival: "The Lark Farm" Wakens Turkish Ghosts|author = Wolfgang Höbel and Alexander Smoltczyk|publisher = Spiegel Online|accessdate = 2007-09-06}}</ref> Richard Kalinoski's play, ''Beast on the Moon'', is about two Armenian Genocide survivors.

The works of [[Arshile Gorky]], an Armenian expatriate whose mother starved to death in the genocide, were often speculated to have been informed by the suffering and loss of the period.<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_n2_v84/ai_18004719 Arshile Gorky and the Armenian genocide]</ref> Gorky was a seminal figure of [[Abstract Expressionism]].

American composer and singer [[Daniel Decker]] has achieved critical acclaim for his collaborations with Armenian composer Ara Gevorgian. The song "Adana", named for the province of [[Adana massacre|a 1909 pogrom]] of the Armenian people, tells the story of the Armenian Genocide. "Adana" has been translated into 17 languages and recorded by singers around the world.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.evangelicalnews.org/indiv_pr.php?action=display&pr_id=3554|title = Gospel Artist Given Standing Ovation By Armenian Government Officials|publisher = ANS|accessdate = 2007-09-06}}</ref>

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The band [[System of a Down]], composed of four descendants of Armenian Genocide survivors, has promoted awareness of the Armenian Genocide, through its lyrics and concerts.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.readersdigest.ca/mag/2006/10/genocide.php|title = Talking With Turks and Armenians About the Genocide|author = Line Abrahamian|publisher = [[Reader's Digest]] Canada|accessdate = 2007-04-23}}</ref>

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In late 2003, [[Diamanda Galás]] released the album "Defixiones, Will and Testament: Orders from the Dead," an 80-minute memorial tribute to the Armenian, Greek, Assyrian and Hellenic victims of the genocide in Turkey. "The performance is an angry meditation on genocide and the politically cooperative denial of it, in particular the Turkish and American denial of the Armenian, Assyrian, and Anatolian Greek genocides from 1914 to 1923".<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.diamandagalas.com/defixiones/|title = Defixiones: Orders from the Dead by Diamanda Galas|publisher = The San Francisco Chronicle|accessdate = 2007-10-05}}</ref>

The hierarch of the Armenian Church is the '''Catholicos of Armenia'''. The current Catholicos is Garegin II, who resides in the city of Echmiadzin, west of Yerevan. However, a minority of the church has recognized instead the Catholicos of Cilicia, who resides in Antilyas in Lebanon, as a result of a dispute that emerged while Armenia was under Communist rule.

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The hierarch of the Armenian Church is the '''Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians'''. The current Catholicos is Garegin II, who resides at the Holy See of Echmiadzin, west of Yerevan. However, a minority of the church outside Armenia is under the jurisdiction of the Catholicos of Cilicia, who resides in Antilias in Lebanon, as a result of a dispute that emerged while Armenia was under Communist rule.

Liturgically, the Church has much in common with the Roman Catholic Church. For example, their bishops wear vestments almost identical to those of Western bishops. The Armenian Apostolic Church should not, however, be confused with the Armenian Catholic Church, which is in union with the Roman Catholic Church. They also typically do not use a full iconostasis, but rather a curtain.

Contents

History

Christianity in Armenia

Tradition tells us that the Apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew first brought Christianity to the land of the Armenians in the first century. However, it would not be for about 200 more years that Armenia would become the first country to adopt Christianity as a state religion, in AD 301, when St. Gregory the Illuminator, a missionary from Caesarea, converted the king of Armenia, Trdat IV, to Christianity. In time, St. Gregory was sent back to Caesarea to be elevated to the episcopate and returned to Armenia as the first Catholicos (or "universal" bishop of an area). Gregory's son, Aristakes, attended the First Ecumenical Council at Nicea in AD 325.

In addition to the obvious spiritual benefits which resulted from the "baptism" of Armenia, this conversion aided in unifying various ethnic groups into a cohesive Armenian identity. The Armenian Church was instrumental in the early missions to neighboring Georgia and Caucasian Albania.

However, the Armenian Orthodox Church argues that this is a wrong description of its position, as it considers Monophysitism, as taught by Eutyches and condemned at Chalcedon, a heresy and only disagrees with the formula defined by that council. The Armenian church instead adheres to the doctrine defined by Cyril of Alexandria, considered as a saint by the Chalcedonian churches as well, who described Christ as being of one incarnate nature, where both divine and human nature are united. To distinguish this from Eutychian and other versions of Monophysitism this position is called miaphysitism.

In recent times, both Chalcedonian and anti-Chalcedonian churches have developed a deeper understanding for each other's positions, recognizing the substantial agreement while maintaining their respective theological language. Hence, the Monophysite label is avoided when describing the Armenians' or Copts' belief regarding the Nature of Christ. It should be noted that the Armenian Church was not represented by its Supreme Patriarch—the Catholicos during the Council of Chalcedon, because the country was in war at the time, so instead a delegation of clergymen was sent.

Leadership

The hierarch of the Armenian Church is the Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians. The current Catholicos is Garegin II, who resides at the Holy See of Echmiadzin, west of Yerevan. However, a minority of the church outside Armenia is under the jurisdiction of the Catholicos of Cilicia, who resides in Antilias in Lebanon, as a result of a dispute that emerged while Armenia was under Communist rule.